We all know Mari has ptsd from Chat blanc. After season 3 so Marinette is guardian. Season 4 non- compliant though truth and lies already happened because as much as I love them we need to get Luka and Kagami out of the way.

He didn't even know what made him come here.

Ok... maybe he did. But he couldn't help it.

Today, at school, the class were talking about what would happen if either ladybug and Chat Noir got akumatised. It was their free period and Miss Bustier had given them free reign of the classroom and to do whatever they wanted. He didn't know who started the conversation, but everyone had become invested. He hadn't really joined in on the conversation but he knew it had somehow turned to Nathaniel being asked to draw on the interactive board.

Ladybug's supposed akumatised form according to the very creative minds of his classmates would be something similar to that of Antibug. It wasn't really original and Adrien knew that her form would likely be much more terrifying if it ever happened (then again, Shadowmoth wasn't really good at making outfits for the akumatised anyways). He had many dreams of his Lady with eyes as black as her spots in a shredded red haunting- yet somehow at the same time ethereal- dress screaming at him to give up his miraculous. And he would do so willingly for his lady. Every. Single. Time.

Then there was the drawing of Chat Noir but without the noir.

It was unsettling really.

Seeing himself in all white. He didn't like it.

Nathaniel had even changed the colour of his eyes, to the same red used on Lady Death (Kim's name, not his).

He really didn't like looking at himself as something other than Adrien or Chat Noir. Because Chat Noir was Adrien and he was Chat Noir. Seeing himself but so unlike either of his personas was... daunting.

Because he didn't want to look at it anymore, he turned his head away from the board and set his eyes on the girl behind him. (What? He'd obviously rather look at her than his potential evil counterpart. It was nothing to do with him really liking the girl and just wanting to look at her adorable face.)

The girl who was looking at the board, her eyes wide with terror and her face scrunched into what could only be seen as uncomfortable. Horrified. Panicked.

Afraid.

"Marinette?" He whispered.

Her eyes moved to his face and he could hear her breath quickening before she shot up, bringing the class's attention to her.

"I-uh- Alya," she turned to her best friend, "Can you tell Miss Bustier I feel sick."

"Are you okay girl?"

"Alya, I just feel really sick."

For a moment she looked suspicious, but seeing her friend's pale face and erratic breathing, she nodded.

Adrien watched, as the girl all but ran out of the class, with the same worried expression as most of his other peers.

So there he was, after school, being brought up to Marinette's room by Sabine. Alya and Nino had checked on her at lunch but he had a photoshoot at that time so he decided to come later.

He spared a glance at the God in his inside pocket, surprised to see the usually lazy kwami with his eyes wide open in an almost frazzled state. If he didn't know better, he would think the Kwami was worried about Marinette.

But there was no reason for Plagg to be, was there?

Somehow, he had convinced Nathalie to let him come check up on her, under the guise that Miss Bustier had asked for him to help Marinette catch up on their classes and Alya and Nino were busy.

Now he had 3 hours (yeah he was shocked as well) to figure out how to make Marinette feel better.

"Marinette. Adrien is here. He said he wants to catch you up on the lessons you missed today."

She was lying on her chaise, her hand on her eyes, but he could see the stray tear that settled on her cheek. Her small nose was tinted red and she looked flushed, presumably from crying so much.

Sabine looked at him with a sad smile before leaving him with her daughter, no doubt knowing he wasn't actually here to help her with her work.

She had told him as they were coming up that Marinette was becoming more distressed about something recently. That perhaps she needed to cry it all out but she also needed someone there to understand her. Alya and Nino had tried and so had Sabine and Tom. But all of them had failed to figure it out. So maybe... maybe Adrien could be the one to do so.

He hoped he could be the one she needed right now. He hoped he would be able to understand her, just as she had with him plenty of times before.

He walked to the girl and settled beside her- she seemed so small, so much so that she didn't even take much space on the chaise.

"Marinette?" He placed a tentative hand on her shoulder but she didn't respond.

To him at least.

"Chat. Please... this isn't-" her voice was desperate, "No... you have to fight...please. I can't- you can't become- im again. I can't fight you again."

This made Adrien feel confused. When had Marinette ever fought Chat Noir?

"Marinette, you need to wake up."

He tried to shake her shoulder gently but her hand moved, unconsciously, grabbing his and clutching it.

"Please tell me where it is... I'll fix this."

"Marinette," her hold on him had tightened and she had started to cry in her sleep.

He didn't understand..why was she having a nightmare about him? What brought this on? Why did she seem so scared?

"The akuma. Tell me where... I promise that we can fix... Chat...don't lea... I can de-evilise... please Chat... you have to sn... of it... I can't do this without you," though her words were mumbled, he could hear most of it clearly.

Suddenly, Adrien stopped trying to wake her as things just... clicked. Why she seemed so alarmed during free period. Why she had never been akumatised. Why he had always felt so familiar with her even when she stuttered around him. Why she had never been in the same place as Ladybug (apart from multimouse. But the more he thought about it, the more he realised that she could have just made an illusion using the fox miraculous.)

It was because she was Ladybug. She always had been.

He could panic later but right now he needed to know what was making her like this.

"Tikki. Sass. Any of you, please. Please. I know you're there. You have to tell me what happened."

He heard a sigh and his own kwami's shocked sputtering before the red and black spotted kwami flew to his eye-level, the snake and the bunny kwamis close behind.

"She didn't tell me much Adrien. You know I can't really see what's happening whilst she's transformed. And we both know that she keeps everything in. She's stubborn."

"She's hurting."

Her eyes closed in agreement and she nodded her head.

"I've tried. She does speak sometimes and I know that the guardianship has taken a lot out of her but I think this is more about what happened when Bunnix came for her."

"What- when did this happen?"

"A few months ago. All I know is that she brought Marinette to an alternate timeline where things went wrong. I assume it was one where you got akumatised but she won't tell me anything."

"It's true," the little bunny piped up, "Next month or yesterday or a few years ago, she gave you a beret which causes, or caused- or is it will cause? And you are in loove. Or you will be- or you still are. And you knew she was ladybug but she will not know- didn't know you were- are- Chat Noir. But that destroyed the sacred timeline, you are akumatised. You were Chat Blanc but because she will erase her mistake, you never will be. But the only way it won'thappen is if the both of you knew- know."

Adrien understood some of the Kwami's musings, though it was a struggle trying to connect the dots. But from what he gathered, it was Marinette who had made him that Beret, not a Brazillian club(and it was really obvious when he thought about it. That was definitelya Marinette original). And knowing that meant he had figured out her identity but he didn't tell her his? Did something happen between that which caused him to become upset and turned him into Chat Blanc?

He sucked a breath in and looked at the girl who was whimpering in her sleep. Her hand had finally let his go so he ran it up and down her arm, trying to soothe her. It seemed to work as her whimpers became less and less, but occasionally, she would still let out some sniffles and his heart lurched in sadness watching her.

"Has she been having these since?"

"The nightmares?" Tikki asked. He didn't say anything, just nodded in confirmation, "Yes. But not too often. And it hasn't been as bad as this one."

"What happened in class may have triggered it," he mumbled as he ran his free hand down his face slowly.

Just then Marinette zipped up, her hands clawing at her face, as she sobbed into them.

One thing he was certain of, her sobs were heart-wrenching.

She was once the happiest person he knew but here she was, drowning and distraught. He wanted to make her happy again. No matter what it took.

He grabbed her hands and moved them so they were around his waist. Then he grabbed her head and pulled her into his chest, letting her tears seep through his shirt as he manoeuvred her so she was sitting in his lap, letting her hold onto him for dear life.

By now, all of the kwamis had exited the box (wherever it was) and were surrounding them, each with varying faces of worry.

"Shh, Princess. I'm here. I'm fine. I won't leave you," he wasn't going to make the same mistake by hiding who he was. Not to her at least.

They stayed there for a while, her hands grasped around him like her life depended on it.

He kept on murmuring sweet words of comfort to her, hoping it would calm her down.

Marinette's breath became more steady and once her eyes cleared a bit, she realised that she wasn't holding onto a leather-clad body, like she thought in her nightmare dazed mind. No, the green, purple and yellow stripes were making it glaringly obvious who it was.

But she heard him when he had called her 'Princess', an endearment she knew that Chat Noir had given Marinette. And his scent was making her confused because even if in the back of her mind she knew that this scent belonged to no one other then Adrien, the familiar comfort in it reminded her of Chat.

As her mind cleared up along with her tears, the thought became more and more reasonable. How the guy she had her arms around was not only Adrien, but it was also Chat.

Because who else would Chat Noir be?

And it made a lot of sense actually. How he was never there when Chat was and the times when it seemed like he was, she had still never seen them in the same room together. How Chat always seemed to know where Adrien was when she asked. How he knew that the illusion of Adrien Volpina had held over the Eiffel tower, was in fact an illusion.

And, deep down, she knew Adrien wasn't the type to tell people secrets, such as her being Ladybug. Because Adrien himself was good at holding secrets. In that timeline, he hadn't told anyone as she had wanted to believe he did.

But that meant that it wasn't just her sweet Chat who had gotten akumatised. It was Adrien.

Her friend and her crush.

The person who, now she knew he was Chat Noir, she was certain that he was the only one she loved. The only one she would ever love.

And just the thought of that made the tears start to blur her eyes again.

She buried her head into his (very) comforting chest and again she just cried, not caring that it was Adrien she was crying on. And even though she was definitely making his shirt wet and salty from her tears, he didn't seem to mind, instead content with holding onto her and whispering sweet words she couldn't quite comprehend in her boggled state of mind.

And as her whole body convulsed and her breath shook every so often, the warm embrace she was in never faltered in its strength.

She wanted them to stay like that forever. She didn't want him to leave her sight. She didn't want anything bad to happen to him ever again. She just wanted him to stay with her. Where she could hold him. Where she could make sure he would feel the love he deserved. She wanted him to be safe and happy.

"I'm here Marinette," he whispered into her ear once her cries seemed to subside, "I'm here M'lady."

"Promise me," she finally shuddered out, as she looked up at him, straight into his piercing green eyes, "Promise me that you'll try your hardest to never become him."

He looked down at her and smiled, because despite him still not knowing the whole story (and well, she didn't actually know the whole story either), he knew enough to reassure her, "I promise with my whole heart that only beats for you M'lady. I will never let the moth man influence me, no matter what. I will always be here for you."

A small giggle escaped her mouth and she let herself breathe, finally.

She reached a hand up and cupped his cheek, looking at him with her mouth upturned, but her eyes were staring seriously at him, "Because- because I can't lose you like that again. I won't. I refuse to. You mean the world to me, both as Adrien and as Chat Noir and I don't want you to ever go through what you did in that timeline. Never again."

He reached up to his face and grasped her fingers lightly, leaning into it as he closed his eyes, "We will figure it out bug. I promise. We will get Shadowmoth and we will prevent anyone from being akumatised ever again. I promise you."

He opened his eyes and mirrored her own actions, stroking her face as he looked at her, lovingly. He leaned in and she felt the ghost of his lips brush against her forehead, causing her eyes to flutter to a close. Even though she couldn't see it, she knew he was smiling widely. But even though she could feel him moving in to her, she couldn't help but gasp in surprise as the warmth of his lips pressed onto her own.

In those few seconds, Marinette felt like she had been lifted from all of her nightmares and had been brought to the most wonderful dream she could ever hope for. She felt as exhilarated as she felt when she would whip out her yoyo and just jump from rooftop to rooftop to get away from all her stress and worry. She felt as happy as the times when her and Chat  (who she now knew was Adrien) would just hang out and laugh about nothing and then everything, just because they could. Everything that burdened her, everything that caused her to feel down, all of that just washed away when he kissed her.

So when he moved his head back, her eyes opened and she pouted at him, wanting his lips back on hers urgently.

He chuckled at her reaction and lifted his hand to brush a few stray hairs out of her face, "If you pout so cutely like that, it will be hard for me to stop kissing you."

"Why stop?" She questioned- or more like whined at him, causing him to laugh more loudly.

"We have a lot to talk about right know and we only have two hours left but... you know," he smirked teasingly, "we do have scheduled patrol today night and well... I'm sure Paris wouldn't mind if their heroes skip it just for one night if it means their favourite couple are finally making out on some rooft-mphh."

She quickly shut him up with another kiss, but he could see that she was becoming rather flustered at his suggestion. Instead of continuing his teasing, he just snaked an arm around her waist, lifting her up just a bit, and continuing the kiss. She responded by moving her legs so instead of dangling off the side, they were wrapped around him, allowing them to stay steady as they did as he suggested, just now instead of at patrol.

Yeah... they should probably talk, and they would. But, right now, the both of them were more than content to be in each other's arms and give each other those kisses which were long overdue.

And as they kissed Adrien thought that he would make sure that he would always be by his Lady's side, loving and protecting her, just as she would do the same with him.

This is a quick one. I'm finishing writing this before I go to sleep. But it's been in my head a while and I already had the first part written down. I just wanted to write a hurt comfort type one. Idk. I think I've started to really like writing hurt comfort. It makes me feel like crying but also feel very happy and bubbly when the comfort happens. There is probably a lot of other stuff I could have put into this but I like it's shortness almost as much as I like teasing my sister for being short. It's cute.

Bug out lovelies 😘.